Wrestler of the Day – December 11: Angelina Love
Here’s someone a bit curvier: Angelina Love.
We’ll start things off with Love in her younger days at a WXW show in 2004.
Elite 8 Second Round: Beth Phoenix vs. Angel Williams
Angel is better known as Angelina Love. Phoenix comes in holding her neck so Williams grabs two quick rollups for a near fall each. We quickly hit a chinlock to work on Beth’s neck but Phoenix comes back with a gutwrench suplex. Angel slaps on a dragon sleeper but Tracy Brooks and a chick named Belladonna come out for a distraction, allowing Beth to grab a quick rollup for the pin.
Angel would get a developmental contract with WWE and head to Deep South Wrestling in Georgia. Here’s a TV match from February 18, 2007. I believe this is the first Deep South match I’ve ever seen.
Angel Williams vs. Krissy Vaine
Vaine is GM and brings out some of the other Divas to surround the ring. It’s a catfight to start with neither girl being able to keep control. Vaine tries to crawl away but gets dragged back to the middle of the ring. The catfight continues until Krissy grabs a quick side slam to take over. Vaine poses a lot and throws Angel down by the hair. Williams pops up and fires off some chops as I think MVP is driving me insane on commentary, talking about how he usually has to pay thousands to see things like this. Not that it matters as a chick called the bag lady comes in with a stick (as in a tree branch) and blasts Williams for the DQ.
Rating: D. This was every stereotype of a bad women’s match that you’ll ever find. There was barely any wrestling, there was a lot of catfighting and neither girl looked like she had any business out there. Vaine is mainly an indy chick while Williams would get a lot better. She actually had a better look here though as she looked less freakishly thin and didn’t have her bad tattoos.
It’s off to TNA at Genesis 2007 for a title shot before she had her more famous name.
Knockout Title: Angel Williams vs. Gail Kim vs. ODB vs. Roxxi Laveux
Williams is Angelina Love before she meant anything other than a good looking blonde. She doesn’t have those ugly arm tattoos either. This might be ODB’s debut match. Actually she was at BFG. Good enough. Gail says she isn’t losing the title after a month. The New Age Outlaws (Voodoo Kin Mafia here) are at ringside for Roxxi. Gail fights off all three of them to start and does it pretty easily. One of the Outlaws tries to interfere and they’re out of here.
Now Roxxi is hypnotizing the referee. Gail is taken down on the floor as Love is beaten down. We get the required spanking as my eyes roll. Roxxi and ODB have something like a dance off and ODB rams Roxxi’s head into her crotch. A bicycle kick by Love takes Roxxi down and thank goodness Gail is back. There’s a cross body to the floor to take out Roxxi. ODB beats on Angelina a bit but the blonde gets a pretty sweet counter into a DDT for two.
The Tower of Doom puts out every non-champion. Scratch that idea as Gail hits a missile dropkick to Roxxi and everyone is down. Now they slug it out and I think we’re wrapping things up. A dropkick puts Roxxi down and a middle rope leg lariat gets two. Roxxi spits something in ODB’s eyes and gets speared down. Gail hits a Regal Cutter on ODB to retain.
Rating: C-. This was as plain and basic of a four way match as you could ask for. That being said it’s pretty entertaining and things worked out fairly well here to leg Kim have her first title defense. That being said, any match where we can look at Kim in tiny white shorts for about ten minutes makes it good to me.
Angelina hooked up with Velvet Sky as the Beautiful People for some Knockout tags, including this at Slammiversary 2008.
ODB/Roxie/Gail Kim vs. Beautiful People/Moose
Moose is a chick that is almost as tough as Kong and is the mascot of the Beautiful People. She broke her leg in a hardcore match in an indy company and hasn’t been seen in TNA since. The Beautiful People leave Moose in the ring and she gets triple teamed. Roxie has the really short haircut here due to losing a match at Sacrifice. Gail and Moose officially start us off.
And make that Roxie as everything breaks down quickly. The Beautiful People try to leave but Gail and ODB don’t let them. Moose gets a flapjack for two. Off to Velvet who likes being on top of Roxie. The heels take over on Roxie and Moose hits a bad looking TKO for two. Velvet puts on an Octopus Hold and bites the hand at the same time. Hot tag to Gail who cleans house, putting all three chicks down and hitting a top rope cross body on Velvet for two.
Angelina takes out Kim’s bad knee and the heels take over again. They must have some time to work with here. Love works over the knee and my goodness we have psychology in a match involving breasts. Edit: breasts that don’t belong to Joe. They really are better than the Divas. Half crab goes on for a bit to work on the leg more. Moose comes in for a bridging Indian deathlock as Gail is in trouble.
There’s a Brock Lock (over the shoulder leg bar) but Gail gets the rope again. The referee is in a bowtie and shorts. That’s quite a look. Gail finally breaks free and there’s ODB off a tag. Thesz Press gets two on Moose and it breaks down again. ODB picks Moose up and hits a British Bulldog style powerslam for the pin.
Rating: C+. I liked this and the knee work was a nice touch. Gail has a bad knee coming in and the announcers pointed it out so it’s not like it was hard to miss. Little things like that one can add up a lot of points in a match and this is a good example of it. That made sense for the heels to go after and they did, showing some thinking which is a big part of psychology.
And another at Hard Justice 2008.
Gail Kim/Taylor Wilde/ODB vs. Beautiful People/Awesome Kong
It’s just Angelina and Velvet at this point. Traci Brooks is here as referee. She looks great from the neck down. I guess Kaz closes his eyes. Gail looks good too so at least we have something to look at here. Angelina vs. ODB to start us off. Ok make that Velvet. She sprays perfume to make the ring smell better and ODB in particular. ODB gets it and sprays various parts of herself with it.
Gail comes in and finally gets things going against Sky. Now Angelina gets beaten up a bit. Off to Wilde who doesn’t do as well. Her thing at this point is she shocked Kong in a huge upset to win the title and is champion here. I guess I missed the belt when she came out. Gail vs. Kong now and that goes badly for Gail. Off to ODB who looks small as well. The nice girls triple team Kong to put her down and send her to the floor. That’s good thinking.
ODB tries to pound on her because that went so well the first time. Traci throws Saed (Kong’s handler) out. ODB spits alcohol into Kong’s face and is promptly crushed for doing so. Velvet comes in with a modified octopus hold which doesn’t last long either. Gail vs. Angelina results in Gail going into the railing throat first. This match is missing more than it’s hitting. Angelina keeps choking and Traci keeps pulling her off. Gail finally gets the tag to Wilde and everything breaks down. Botox Injection takes Wilde down but Wilde hooks a victory roll out of the Lights Out for the pin.
Rating: D+. I wasn’t into this and it just went way too long. The Beautiful People didn’t know how to work a long match yet and it was really clear. There wasn’t much of a story either as it felt more like a big collection of one on one matches than a tag match. There was no real segment where one chick got beaten down and that hurt the match a lot. I know it’s a formula but it works better than most matches.
Let’s hit the cage at Lockdown 2009.
Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Awesome Kong vs. Taylor Wilde
I forgot how hot the BP were as the total stuck up villains. West doesn’t even bother hiding that he only cares about their looks. They cut Kong’s braids so she’s a good deal ticked off. Taylor is still hot. I’ve always liked how she high fives people on the way to the ring. Little things like that make big differences as you look like you CARE about the fans. It’s not much but it’s something at least.
Kong goes straight for Love and beats the tar out of her, as does Taylor. Yeah they’re not even trying to hide that she gets the title tonight. She gets out of a powerbomb and avoids the butt drop from Kong. The two blondes go at it with Love winning. She’s underrated in the ring. The total smark crowd wants Gail Kim. Velvet’s never ending smirk is sexy beyond belief.
Giant swing as we go WAY old school. Love dizzy is kind of funny as well. Kong stands on her hair and pulls her up which must hurt. She has dominated the vast majority of this match, which to be fair has only been about four minutes so far. Kong goes up and misses a front flip splash to a huge pop. Love kills Wilde with a kick and then she and Velvet tie Kong to the cage BY HER HAIR.
Instead of just ending it there with a quick move from Angelina like they should, they have a one on one match with Wilde and Love. Wilde goes over to laugh at Kong and gets kicked in the face so Love can pin her. Sweet goodness is it impossible to make a champion look strong here at all???
Rating: C-. Not bad here actually as the ending was a legit surprise and well done. Not the new champion that is but the way they got rid of Kong. I wasn’t a fan of the in ring stuff as it was ALL Kong for the vast majority here and Wilde was just there so that the pin could work, but I’m really liking the ending which is what makes this match work for me. Well that and the girls were mostly gorgeous which is the main perk of the division.
Love had to defend the title against a monster at Sacrifice 2009.
Knockouts Title: Awesome Kong vs. Angelina Love
The Beautiful People have been eliminated by Kong and are also called Mi Pi Sexy here for no good reason. Love has a crown on here and is looking rather nervous to put it mildly. We get a Kong’s Gonna Kill You chant to start things off. Love tries to run which of course fails. There’s a funny visual of her holding onto the railing and Kong pulling her feet which leaves her off the ground.
All Kong to start us off here of course as West talks about how Love is luring her into a false sense of security. Kong misses the spinning back fist into the post though and Love has….well I can’t in fair consciousness call it a chance but she’s not getting beaten on for awhile at least. Love kicks her down and sprints into the ring to get the count out which of course doesn’t work.
Botox Injection kick hits but these shots are clearly not working in the slightest. Kong apparently remembers that it’s supper time and she wants a Knockout for supper. Wow that was corny. Love tries to leave again but Raisha Saed stops her and Kong lands a running splash to end her. Leg drop gets one as Kong lets her up. Love gets out of the way of a middle rope splash and sprays some stuff in the eyes of Kong. A rollup with tights ends Kong.
Rating: D. Well they did what they could here and at least they booked the match properly. Love couldn’t fight Kong straight up and everyone knew it so they didn’t try to. Love stealing the win is ok I guess but this was the beginning of the total dominance by the BP until Tara helped fight them off a bit.
One more title shot at Victory Road 2009.
Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Tara
Tara is champion here and showed up recently, more or less hating the Beautiful People just because I guess. She also took the title on Impact about a month ago so this is the rematch. They’re scared of the spider which I can’t blame them for since I have a spider bite on my arm that refuses to heal. Love is freaking awesome as the hot chick. It just works for her.
Of course the announcers can’t think because there are women in front of them. I love that Broken theme. We stall for awhile as they run from the spider. What was the point of that anyway? Is it supposed to be sexy? I don’t want a freaking tarantula anywhere near me. Tara starts in the t-shirt early on and then rips it off for a great visual.
Then again I’ve always had a crush on Tara so there we go. Tara busts out the Tarantula move which at least makes sense here. West is mostly heel here also. Love starts dominating after some hot girls interference. We get a Bobo Brazil reference that even Tenay doesn’t get. We go old school with a double clothesline spot. I love that move.
Skye accidently sprays hairspray into Love’s eyes but it only gets two because the referee throws the other two girls out. Tara misses a moonsault and Love covers her, but Tara’s foot is on the rope. Doesn’t matter apparently as Love gets the title anyway. Post match Tara superkicks the referee and beats up Love.
Rating: C-. Not bad, but nothing great. The thing here is that the Knockouts at this time were AWESOME with their stuff destroying the Divas. Somehow in a year that’s completely switched but whatever. Anyway, this wasn’t anything great but it’s certainly not bad. It did the job it was supposed to do though so I have to give it that.
Love would get the title back by pulling it out of a box (seriously) so let’s mix it up a bit at Lockdown 2010.
Knockout’s Title/Tag Titles: Beautiful People vs. Tara/Angelina Love
Ok so it’s your standard two singles wrestlers vs. tag champions. You know the rules I’m sure. Yep Tara is gorgeous. Velvet and Angelina start us off. Taz is rather annoying on commentary to say the least. Some nice double teaming from the BP there. Make jokes amongst yourselves. Tara pulls an Angle and totally misses a moonsault. Good to see that the accuracy is there still.
Angel is better in the ring than she’s given credit for. Madison takes the Widow’s Peak but Velvet makes the save. Lacey gets in somehow and drills Tara in the head with a belt to give Madison Rayne the Knockout’s Title. So that’s two straight title changes with the champion not getting pinned. Ok then. I do love the BP being the focus of the division. That’s intelligent and not sarcastic actually.
Rating: C-. Not terrible actually. Love is underrated in the ring and Tara is always solid. The booking is right here and we don’t get the wacky tag partners which is never any good. I’m rather happy for the first near hour of this show. I must be coming down with something. At least the match didn’t go on that long.
Another shot at a title at Victory Road 2010.
Knockouts Title: Madison Rayne vs. Angelina Love
If Rayne wins then Love retires and she can lose the belt by DQ. We start with a big slugout. Rayne is in skin colored clothes. And remember people: these chicks are WAY better than the Divas and don’t you forget it. I really can’t stand this division anymore as it’s somehow more of a joke than WWE.
Rayne wraps her legs around Love’s head and slams it face first into the mat. Her finisher doesn’t work and Love makes her comeback. Rayne brings in a chair and gets it kicked into her face. Can we get on with this? And here’s a chick on a motorcycle. She jumps Love and the referee determines that since she’s either Velvet or Lacey (she’s in a helmet) Rayne is disqualified and Love is champion. Rayne leaves with the chick that just cost her the belt of course. Allegedly it’s Tara, because she retired recently and therefore has to come back immediate.
Rating: D-. This was somehow less interesting than the previous match. This is the third straight title change that hasn’t involved the champion being pinned. Is there a point to this title anymore? Same with the girl tag titles. This is even more of a joke than I could have imagined. Whatever man.
Back to TV for a title shot on Impact, August 12, 2010.
Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne
Now, can we break the streak of title changes without an actual pin? How are we supposed to take this division seriously with the commentary the way it is? Naturally a lot of the moves from Madison are shall we say suggestive? And make sure you get the back shots. Love kills her with a bunch of stuff and here’s the motorcycle chick.
The crowd chants Tara as they know what’s coming. Skye pops up from behind and DRILLS her with a chair. The helmet comes off and she’s wearing a mask underneath. It comes half off but all we see is a mouth. Back in the ring Lights Out ends this and Love is a five time champion.
Rating: D. Crap match but did you expect anything else? Love looked like Mr. Perfect with the outfit and that was more or less the high point. This whole biker thing is going on to not make it look like Tara just returned a week later which is stupid since clearly the crowd knows who she is. This was a really short match but it did the job….whatever that was supposed to be.
And another on Impact, December 23, 2010.
Knockouts Tag Titles: Madison Rayne/Tara vs. Angelina Love
I forgot Madison was champion. That’s just not good at all. Angelina is introduced as being on her own due to Velvet being beaten down. It’s more or less Angelina vs. Madison as Tara can’t go because of her arm. Tara comes in for a few seconds but can’t do much at all due to the injury. She comes in, gets three stomps and a left handed choke and leaves. Not her fault of course but it makes the whole tag title thing a bit of a stretch.
Madison does her head scissors stomp thing and even her shapely figure can’t even get the crowd into this. Winter comes down and cleans house as Angelina tags her in. Apparently she’s taking over. A really bad Catatonic (spinning Rock Bottom from a slam position) ends Madison at 4:50.
Rating: D. The crowd was dead as all goodness for this. For a tag match having a total of three tags is a bit of a stretch. These belts don’t need to exist at all and you can see that more and more often every week. This wasn’t interesting at all and with the roster getting slimmer and slimmer, they need to do something with it soon. Winter will help, but they need more girls and fast.
Knockout Title: Angelina Love vs. Mickie James
Fans are totally behind Mickie here. There’s a fat guest timekeeper that Taz makes jokes about. Angelina does her zombie thing and it turns into kind of a catfight. Love works on the arm so Mickie gets a rana out of the corner, only to walk into a snap suplex for two. Mickie blows a kiss at Winter so Winter takes her down. Not into swinging I guess. Mickie gets a clothesline to take both girls down.
And there she goes right back to the floor. Angelina is sent into the steps which gets about a seven on the floor. Back in and Mickie takes over one more time with a bunch of clotheslines. Thesz Press off the top gets no cover. Winter grabs Mickie’s foot again which gets her nowhere at all.
Botox Injection (name totally doesn’t fit anymore) gets two so Angelina goes all psycho on Mickie again. She tries that backbreaker thing she’s been doing which is countered into the DDT attempt. Northern lights suplex gets two. Winter cheating on a rollup gets two. They botch the jumping DDT like never before but it gets the pin anyway. Horrible looking ending and considering Mickie was involved in it, that says a lot.
Rating: D+. The botches were flowing harder than a sorority’s menstrual cycle here and it really hurt the match. They need to get somewhere already with this story because they’re moving like molasses with it. Just get to the lesbian stuff or have Angelina wake up already. Mickie keeping the title here is probably only temporary but whatever.
One more TV match on Impact, September 15, 2011.
Velvet Sky vs. Angelina Love
Angelina jumps her during the entrance (the camera was on the wrong end anyway) but Velvet gets something resembling a bulldog to send Angelina to the floor. Back with Angelina getting two off something we don’t see. Sky’s tights now say Let the Pigeons Loose. Oh great. Just what Tazz needs: a thought that it’s catching on. Sunset flip out of the corner gets two for Velvet. Velvet starts her comeback and tells Winter to get up on the apron. Winter clocks Angelina on the head with the belt (Hebner is cool with it) and a DDT (called a BeauDT but screw that) gives Velvet the win at 9:05 counting commercial.
Rating: D. Your usual Knockout mess here and the ending was really stupid. Why wasn’t that a DQ? Because the script didn’t call for it I suppose. Also, why would Angelina want to go fight Winter? Don’t they love each other or something? Also, seriously, the Beau-DT? I hated the Mick-DT but this is even worse.
Love would leave TNA in 2012 and hit the indies for awhile. Here she is at FWE No Limits 2013.
FWE Women’s Title: Angelina Love vs. Maria Kanellis
Maryse and Katie Lea are on commentary. Maria is defending here and is plays quite the villain by not wanting any fan to touch her and kissing her boyfriend Mike Bennett at ringside. She jumps Love at the bell but gets taken down by the hair. A running knee drops drops Maria as the male announcer tries to avoid saying chest. They head outside so Maria can hide behind Bennett and get Angelina to chase her inside.
The plan works for the most part but Maria misses the elbow drop, only to have Bennett offer a distraction so Maria can kick her to the floor. Back in and Bennett offers some choking as we get a CM Punk chant. Angelina’s sunset flip doesn’t work as Maria kicks her in the face to take over again. A backbreaker gets two for the champ and we hit the chinlock.
The girls debate going bald as until Love fights up with a series of clotheslines. Lights Out (lifting downward spiral) plants Maria but she rolls out to the floor. Mike slips her the belt but Love rolls her up for two. It should have been three but Mike shouted STOP, and for some reason the referee did just that. The distraction lets Maria grab a rollup of her own with a handful of tights for the pin.
Rating: D+. You know, Maria is actually really good in this heel role. She was terrible in the ring as a face but this worked FAR better as she nailed how to be a better than you villain. The referee just stopping was dumb, but at least Love looked good in defeat. Not much to see here but I was impressed by Maria.
Love would return to TNA in 2014 and had a title shot at Sacrifice.
Knockouts Title: Angelina Love vs. Madison Rayne
Madison is defending and quickly knocks Angelina out to the floor with a shoulder. Angelina has a meeting with Velvet Sky and comes back in for a headlock and shoulder of her own. Madison takes her down with a nice trip but can’t use the headscissors face slam into the mat. Instead it’s a baseball slide to send Love back to the floor but she sends a following Rayne face first into the apron.
Back inside and the Beautiful People take turns choking on the ropes and in the corner to little avail. Madison gets a quick sunset flip for two but gets sent to the floor where she beats on Velvet a bit. Back in and the challenger puts on a figure four with her legs in a nice touch. An enziguri puts Love down again though and now the face slam works.
Velvet tries to help her friend but the champ dives on both of them in an awesome visual. They head inside again and it’s the Rayne Drop for two. Angelina’s Botox Injection (Brogue Kick) gets the same and the fit is thrown. Madison comes back with a spear but Velvet sprays her in the eyes with hairspray, allowing Love to roll Rayne up with a handful of tights for the pin and the title at 8:15.
Rating: C-. It’s a Knockouts match so you’ve seen the whole thing before at least a few times. Angelina winning the title again makes sense in storyline terms but it’s still nothing new. I don’t really care about the Beautiful People reunion as it feels like we’ve traveled back in time instead of doing something that might get people to care. That almost never works in wrestling, at least when the past act is the focus.
Angelina Love is pretty much the most dominant Knockout of all time and has had some really impressive success over the years. I’m not sure how much good she would have done in WWE, but she more than held her own in TNA and has managed to not get overshadowed by the more popular Sky. That’s more than can be said for most Knockouts and Love’s record for title wins is nothing to be overlooked.
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